Oklahoma's Bradford again outpoints Texas' McCoy

Remember when nobody ran the Wishbone any better than Oklahoma? Well, for the second time in six seasons a Sooner quarterback has won the Heisman Trophy for what he did with his arm. To go with a pair of runner-ups since 2000.

Bob Stoops is no Barry Switzer.

Saturday night in New York, Sam Bradford joined OU's Jason White (2003) in the fraternity by beating out two other QBs, Colt McCoy of Texas and last year's winner, Florida's Tim Tebow.

Texas (11-1) beat Oklahoma (12-1) in October but isn't playing in the BCS national-title game. Florida (12-1), which won a ring 2 years ago, will be OU's opponent in this season's finale on Jan. 8 in Miami.

The Heisman voting was just as confounding. Tebow, who finished third, received the most first-place support (309) but was left off of 154 of the 904 ballots.

Bradford, who led the nation with 48 touchdown passes, had 300 first-places and 1,726 points. McCoy finished with 266 and 1,604. Tebow's total was 1,575.

The only others to win the Heisman without getting the most first-place votes were Notre Dame's Paul Hornung (1956) and Oklahoma's Billy Sims (1978).

Tebow, who was trying to join Ohio State's Archie Griffin (1974-75) as the lone two-time winner, had been the only sophomore to hoist the hardware. Now he has company. Only difference is, Bradford redshirted his first season.

There's a chance all three finalists could return. The only one who has confirmed he will be back is McCoy.

"I don't think I could put into words what I feel," said Bradford, who's 1/16th Cherokee. "It was a surreal experience."

This was the closest vote between the top two since 2001, when Nebraska's Eric Crouch finished 62 points ahead of Florida's Rex Grossman. The only other time the margin between first and third was smaller was also that year, with Miami's Ken Dorsey finishing 132 behind Crouch.

"They either love the Gators or they hate us," Tebow said. "I'll use this as motivation. We'll get to decide something a little bit better [next month] and I'm excited about that. I'm competitive. I want to win everything I do."

This will be the second time that Heisman winners will face each other for the national title. The other was the 2005 Orange Bowl, when White's Sooners met Southern Cal and Matt Leinart.

We know how that turned out.

Heisman Trophy winners are 1-5 in BCS finals. One of the losses was after the 2000 season, when Oklahoma's Josh Heupel, who's now on OU's staff, beat Chris Weinke and Florida State in the Orange Bowl. Weinke had beaten out Heupel by 76 points in the voting. The Sooners are 0-4 in BCS bowls since then.

"This is an individual award but I also feel like I'm receiving it on behalf of my teammates," said Bradford, the fifth underclassman to win in the last 6 years. "I feel like my whole offense bails me out every game. They make me look good."

He won four of the six voting regions. Tebow carried the South, McCoy the Midwest.

One down, a much bigger one to go.

See you on South Beach. *